My Week in Maine

I love Maine.  It is far away from the greater Houston area which means it's a great spot for a get away.  My friend Nancy lives there with her goats, chickens, pigs, cats and dogs which means it's a great spot for a get away.  They don't have hurricanes in Maine and with Hurricane Harvey just a month ago that means it's a great spot to get away.  And it's far enough north that it's always cooler which makes it a great spot for a get away.  And they have fabulous fall color.  And there is a Dunkin' Donut on almost every corner.  It's going to be fabulous!

Nancy and her Piper's Reach Farm is in lovely Litchfield, ME and I love visiting her.  I'm always happy to spend some time with Nancy but also I get to help feed the goats but I'm not called upon to milk any of them.  I get to feed the chickens and collect eggs, which I love.  Her 7 dogs are all wonderful, if somewhat overly energetic - it's the Blue Healers I'm talking about, of course.  The others are normal dogs.  Even the livestock guardian dogs that live out with the goats are pretty much normal.  I love visiting her and living her life with her for a week.  I couldn't maintain that life by myself - it's a huge amount of work and I've gotten old enough to not have the kind of stamina she does.

I love Nancy's pigs.  She bought them to root out parts of the property that are seriously overgrown and they do a great job of that.  They are small by pig standards but since they are not for breakfast there is no downside to that.  And the upside is they are small enough to treat if needs be. 

There were a couple of areas that weren't up to expectations for this trip.  First of all, Hurricane Jose followed me up the eastern seaboard and impacted Maine with wind.  It was kind of nice, actually, but I felt like getting away from all things hurricane was foiled. I missed peak foliage so saw just the beginning of reds and yellows appearing on the trees.  We had Houston type weather the entire week I was there.  Highs were in the middle to upper 80's with lows in the upper 60's.  More normal temps would be highs in the 60's and lows in the 40's like they are experiencing right now.  Well, rats.  I had really hoped for cold temperatures and I had packed for it.  And the Mainers don't really run to air conditioning which is fine if the temps are 40's to 60's, not so fine if it's 87 degrees.

On the positive side - Tasty fried clam strips at Gilbert's Chowder House, lobster rolls at Harraseeket Lunch & Lobsters, wonderful hand dyed yarn at Tess's Designer Yarns, beautiful pottery from Edgecomb Potters, amazing potato donuts at Holey Donuts, regular donuts at Dunkin' Donuts, a fun and exhausting walk through Common Ground Country Fair, along with a wonderful train ride to get to the fair. 

I had a great time and now I need a couple of weeks to rest up.